Elite Plus- A UX/UI Case Study
For my final project in Ironhack’s UX/UI Design Bootcamp I was tasked with choosing a company to work with and, using the Design Thinking Process, help create an app that best fit their needs.
For this project I chose Elite Athlete Management, a nationally operating sports agency that represents NFL football players. According to their website, they are “regarded as a premier representation group. ELITE Athlete Management offers a superior package of personal service, dedication and expertise to [their] clients that is second to none.”
The Brief
Professional athletes have a very busy schedule. From practice, to games, to marketing and charity events, time is of the essence. It’s very easy for a player to forget about activities that are out of the scope of their daily routine. Most athletes are their own personal assistants and organization across platforms can be difficult. Athletes are anywhere from 21 years old to 30 years old and so communication and organization may not be their strong suit or top priority.
We must help them to better manage their calendar by providing a way for viewing upcoming off the field activities and events, view event details and search through their calendars to find upcoming events.
As there were only three businesses available to choose from for this final project, I worked alongside three other students to brainstorm initial ideas and complete User Research. The design was done individually.
Discover
I began my preliminary research by using the Lean UX Canvas which allowed me to hypothesize about business problems and outcomes and user and customer profiles and benefits.
I found potential business problems to be that Elite is lacking a way to effectively communicate as an agency and they need a better way to establish successful players both on and off the field.
Possible business outcomes could be that this app would add value to the recruiting process by enabling Elite to add one top athlete each year to their client list. They would also be able to help their clients better organize their time and assist them transitioning from college level to professional level football more successfully. This in turn is also a user benefit.
Next I looked at Elite’s competition. Their biggest competitors according to the stakeholders were Young Money Sports and Element Sport agencies. As I was building a scheduling app, I looked at secondary competitors to do a Competitive Feature Analysis. I took some of the highest rated scheduling and calendar apps and compared them against one another to see what features were standard and where I found there may be opportunity for design.
I found that most of the apps did not incorporate any gamification, they did not provide detailed information about upcoming events and most did not sync with other devices or personal calendars.
Next I created a Market Positioning Chart to see where my app could fit into the marketplace. I measured the ability to set customizable alerts versus the ability to sync a personal calendar and found the uncontested place in the market to be a an app that could be highly customizable with the ability to sync to personal calendars. I marked this as the Blue Ocean and moved on to my user research.
Once I had completed my preliminary research I began user research. I completed 5 interviews and received 38 survey responses to see user behavior with scheduling and time management.
I conducted 5 interviews which consisted of stakeholders, agents within the company, Division 1 collegiate athletes and sport recruiters. They offered several insights into my investigation. Some of the standout qualitative data included:
“ I ignore most notifications because I get so many. I need to improve time tracking and organization skills.”
“My thing is like you cannot forget a meeting, there’ll be some really serious consequences”
“We want these guys to be able to talk football sound articulate and sound intelligent like they did their homework”
“I don’t want to overload them with information”
Define
I distilled the data I collected from my user research and created an Affinity Diagram to see the patterns and themes of what my users were actually saying and doing.
From this I was able to see just how these players are thinking and feeling and how their behavior and patterns could be improved. I found that going from college to professional football is a hard transition and that communicating effectively was a struggle.
I created a User Persona which represented the mental model of all of my data and findings. This helped me to really empathize and get into the mindset of my user.
Problem statements:
- Our user is overwhelmed and feels left in the dark because their schedule is constantly changing and they need to check texts and emails to keep up to date with it
- Our user is scattered and out of the loop when it comes to being informed of upcoming events and what information they will need at each appearance
- Our user is frustrated because if they miss an important text or email they can miss an event that can result in loss of revenue and tarnished reputation
Develop
How might we:
… help our user keep better track of their schedule?
…help our user stay informed about upcoming events and appearances?
…help our user be alerted to real time schedule changes in a way that they won’t lose or miss?
From here I distilled my ideas through the MoSCoW Method which helped filter my ideas through won’t, should, could and must have features.
Next I needed to ensure that my ideas were going to bring value to my users and that the pains, gains and jobs to be done were being matched to the product market fit.
Through the use of the Value Proposition Canvas I confirmed that I indeed was filling the fit of both the business goals and needs of the user. I formulated my Value Proposition Statement:
When an NFL player is confused about their schedule, Elite’s scheduling app will help them keep informed of their daily task breakdown, provide need to know information about upcoming events and send them alerts and notifications so that they won’t miss anything and they can focus on improving their game both on and off the field.
This in turn led me to the culmination of my research, defining, discovering and led me to confirm my Minimum Viable Product:
A scheduling app with a daily dashboard that showcases differentiated event types, provides information on upcoming events and customizable alerts so players can be informed of all daily and upcoming events.
Once established, I began thinking of the actual design. I created a User Flow Chart of the “happy path” of my user going through the onboarding process and navigating through the scheduling app.
Deliver
Once I determined my user flow it was time to start prototyping. I began with my low fidelity mock up which I created in InVision.
I tested the prototype in Maze and found that users thought it was easy to use but that some of the language used and placements of buttons were confusing.
I kept this information in mind as I built out my mid fidelity prototype. This I created in Figma and built out more of the dashboard features and added icons and a ‘speak with an agent’ page.
I again tested the prototype in Maze and got generally good feedback. The ‘speak with an agent’ feature didn’t prove to be part of my happy path and I excluded it from my final prototype. I also changed the icons as they were found to be chunky and out of date. Users were also confused by the worded navigation menu so I added additional icons for my final mock up.
I was now ready to begin thinking about colors and the look and style of the app. I completed a visual competitive analysis to see how Elite’s competition styled their websites.
I analyzed their color schemes and fonts and saw what kind of imagery they utilized on their sites. I found them to have similar stylings to Elite’s website but with more muted tones.
Next I determined new brand attributes for Elite’s app. The current brand attributes were Faith, Football and Family but after discussing the look with the stakeholders, I came up with five new ones:
- Professional
- Successful
- Sporty
- Modern
- Sleek
I kept these in mind and created a moodboard for design inspiration.
I kept Elite’s colors and logos per the stakeholders requests and next made a style tile with new fonts and icons.
I again tested this and received feedback about the buttons and colors. I opted to use a brighter red for the plus button and got rid of the chunky navigation buttons for the onboarding process.
I was lucky enough to be able to test my hi fidelity prototype with Deejay Dallas, running back for the Seattle Seahawks, to get his feedback. He was overall pleased with the prototype.
When viewing the Upcoming Meeting he said, “wow that makes it so much better.” We discussed functionality and he said, “as an athlete, I need to have structure in my schedule. And for agents to have access to my schedule would help me a lot.” When discussing building out the app further he said, “if we had that on there, that would be sick.”
Next Steps
I was greatly encouraged by both the user and the stakeholder providing positive feedback to my initial prototype. I need to have a follow up meeting with the stakeholders to determine building out the rest of the app to include the agent’s side of scheduling, draft capabilities and admin input. I’m excited to see where I can add value to such a successful business and agency.
